Early 1990s Romania Revisited: Power, Transition, and Foreign Policy in the Diary of Ioan Mircea Pașcu

Abstract

This essay revisits early-1990s Romania through the first volume of Ioan Mircea Pașcu’s political diary, which covers the period from June 1990 to October 1992. It argues that the diary should be treated not merely as a political memoir, but as a major documentary source for reconstructing Romania’s early post-1989 politics, foreign policy, and transition. Moving beyond a conventional book review, the essay reorganises the diary’s chronological entries into an analytical structure centred on four themes: (1) the domestic struggle for power, (2) the political role of the informal group ‘A Future for Romania,’ (3) Romania’s foreign and security policy in a dangerous grey area between the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the still uncertain post-Cold War order, and (4) the political personalities who dominated the period. The analysis shows that the diary challenges several later retrospective myths, especially concerning the June 1990 events, the Iliescu–Roman conflict, Romania’s alleged alignment with the Soviet Union, and the assumption that rapid integration into the collective West depended mainly on the will of the Romanian leadership. Instead, Pașcu’s account reveals a far more contingent and insecure setting, marked by institutional fragility, economic and social crisis, regional instability, and limited Western interest in Romania. The diary is thus highly relevant not only to historians and political scientists, but also to sociologists concerned with transition, state formation, political recruitment, and post-Cold War regional order.